Revamped Lexis Advance Offers New Research Tools, Better Pricing System

As the online legal research wars continue, LexisNexis hopes to move forward with a revamped offering it calls Lexis Advance.

The legal database’s complete overhaul, announced today, also includes a newly minted search dashboard stocked with fresh tools designed to get the most from the LexisNexis system.

Key among Lexis Advance’s new capabilities:

• Simultaneous searches, which enable users to search LexisNexis and the Web at large with a single search query.

• Alerts that can be programmed to bring back new case law, new legislation, new legal precedent and breaking news associated with a case.

• New post-search filters that allow users to categorize research data on specific litigation by information source, attorney players or law firm players.

Also, under a new billing scheme, all subscribers can now conduct unlimited searches on LexisNexis for free and pay for data flagged as ‘out-of-plan’ on a document-by-document basis.

Even more convenient, charges for those documents only kick in after a user peruses a document summary and decides to click and pull up a full version of the document, according to Clemens Ceipek, a vice president and managing director at LexisNexis.

The by-popular-demand feature was designed to take the worry out of using LexisNexis, the previous pricing of which—considered ambiguous by some—resulted in unexpected charges for many who roamed beyond their subscription plans, Ceipek says.

In addition, Lexis Advance also offers two new premium-priced features:

• Shepard’s Graphical: Image-oriented representations of Shepard’s Reports, which display all rulings—including good law and law that has been overruled—associated with any given case.

• Research Map: A graphic research map that illustrates all LexisNexis research conducted on any given case.

Current LexisNexis subscribers will be able to use the new Lexis Advance for free for the duration of their subscriptions.